Cherokee wasn't the only Native American language (ignoring that it's actually a form of Iroquois to boot) on the continent... while funny, XKCD is not some arbiter of righteous thought. While the other AC is certainly extreme in his opinion, the notion that citizens should all speak at least one language in common is a necessary part of democracy and free enlightened society. If people can't communicate than the transference of ideas is hampered. Further, lack of communication and ability to socialize with

To a certain extent no it's not. But if a country becomes too fractured, it can no longer function as a country serving all its people. Iraq is kind of an example of this. Tensions between Sunni/Shia/Kurds has led to an inability of the Iraqi government to adequately hold these groups together. And has allowed for the severe persecution of minorities, like the Yazidis.

Heterogeneous societies require a certain level of national unity to competently function.

I'm not entirely sure Iraq should be called a country. That's only slightly facetious.

Like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, it was created by treaties between other countries. Czechoslovakia worked out OK (now Slovakia and the Czech Republic) but Yugoslavia fared badly when the colonial power withdrew.

The same could be said for many of the nations of Africa with bloody post-colonial histories.

They're a country, they're a political entity that has borders that are recognized by other countries. The countries you listed were still countries, and they too would fit into my argument. You had multiple strong cultural or political identities that were unwilling or unable to interact civilly with each other. The result is always a break up, usually preceded by a civil war.

Language doesn't dictate that such things like that would happen, but it usually doesn't help. India may be an example of a country

My point, which apparently I did not make very clearly, is that nations created as administrative units by empires (e.g. Rwanda) and which later gain independence, and those created in peace treaties (e.g. Yugoslavia) tend to have bloody histories after the colonial powers withdraw.

Countries created by federation (e.g. the 13 colonies of the United States of America, Switzerland) or annexation/consolidation (e.g. the USA, the UK excluding Ireland) tend to be less troubled by ethnic and/or religious conflic

Not to mention it can leave the group that refuses to at least learn isolated which in turn limits their chances for advancement. For example in my area there is two groups that refuse to speak anything but their native tongue, the Mexicans and the Ebonic speaking black neighborhood. In both cases they live in ghettos, complete with higher crime and drug abuse. in both cases they will never be hired in any job which in any way has any interaction with the public (for obvious reasons) which limits their chan

Depends on labor conditions. Most likely, the baby would be born normally. But in case of special conditions, where the mother/baby life is at risk, it could be necessary to follow some guidelines taught by a paramedic.

I wonder what would have happened had they not had Google Translate. A boy?

Depending on the circumstances, the alternative could have been death of mother and/or baby. The alternative almost certainly would have been an even more unpleasant experience for the mother, with no ability to communicate with the EMTs about her state or the progress of the birth.

(Now let's see if my AC stalker shows up to crapflood responses to this post, too.)

Swahili is one of the 4 official non-European languages in DRC with approximately 33 million DRC citizens speaking the language.

So... the story makes sense... kind of. I agree though, French would have been my go-to language for someone from DRC. I've traveled in DRC (eastern side) and French was always the first thing anyone spoke to me.

Swahili is an old-ish trader language. It has very distinct links to Arabic (lots of common words). It was big in the EA region for a long time in addition to the local/tribal languages. The Germans and British did a lot to bring it into more common use and institutionalized its use in the late 1800s through to around 1930.

The spread of Swahili into DRC? No clue. Probably just the natural fluid-like progression of languages. Political borders don't always define language groups.

French would have been the more sensible option, but I heard quite a lot of Swahili in markets in RC at least. Maybe she thought it would have a better chance of being understood? From what I understand, giving birth is a little, um, uncomfortable, and you might not think completely straight at the time...

The problem is English speakers speaking another language have a whole slew to choose from. Some more helpful than others, but much of that has to do with likelihood of having to use the other language. I should've learned Spanish instead of French in high school, because I'm more likely to come into contact with that language. But someone in say England, might want to learn French over Spanish due to proximity to France. And someone from New Zealand might want to learn Maori.

We have the same requirement in the U.S. (generally a year or two of foreign language in secondary school). But even though French, Spanish, and German were the most common languages taught when I was in school, the odds of two given random people being actually fluent in French are low. And all of this is, of course, assuming that either of the paramedics happened to know that French was a common second language for a Swahili speaker.

Was about to say the same. In most parts of the US (I think it's a state-level thing) you need 2 years of a foreign language to enter college. At the college I went to you had to take another 2 semesters of foreign language if you were are liberal arts major. Math/science majors didn't have to take anything over what they had in high school.

I took 3 years of French in high school (didn't do anymore in college) because it was the only foreign language my high school offerred (which is a bit insane - Spani

Just like any other country, some people do and some people don't. Did the two paramedics? Did the woman? I'd like to think that both parties would have tried any/all the languages they knew before resorting to Google translate.

They may have tried that but her French wasn't that good or the accents were mutually unintelligible.

That French is the official language does not guarantee perfect fluency and certainly does not mean that French is her native language. It almost certainly is not.

A given African country will have many languages. Educated Africans typically speak several languages with varying fluency. The Congolese woman would be most fluent in her tribal language but they may not be in Google Translate and it would be di

I use google translate pretty often with my foreign patients. My practice is located in the coast of Spain and even though I also speak french and german, sometimes I must deal with scandinavians, russians and eastern europeans.

Just a hint when dealing with us Scandinavians: Use English. If the person is not an older one, they very probably can at least understand it, if not speak. English has been a mandatory subject in our schools for years and years:)

Most of Scandinavians (or at least Finns) in Spain are retired persons with mostly very minimal education. Retired move Spain to evade welfare state taxes.

I can't say anything about the quality of google translate when it comes to Swahili. But usually when the languages are to some degree different (like, say, anything European to anything Far East and vv), you usually end up with something that makes little, if any, sense. If you want to see for yourself, go to any Chinese website, take the text there and paste it into Google translate and take a wild guess what the article is about.

It can work out if you don't want to transport complex, nuanced meaning

I'm a husband and I feel that google translate is missing the most important language: "english"->"wife". When she says "Do I look ok in this dress?" and I say "yep.", she seems to hear something different.

I'm a husband and I feel that google translate is missing the most important language: "english"->"wife". When she says "Do I look ok in this dress?" and I say "yep.", she seems to hear something different.

It'd help clear up many misunderstandings.

Ah, the typical "insecure wife" bullshit. Your mistake is to try to deal with it.If you want it to stop. Whenever she starts some bullshit, just leave. Don't say anything. Go for a one hour walk or whatever.

I'm a husband and I feel that google translate is missing the most important language: "english"->"wife". When she says "Do I look ok in this dress?" and I say "yep.", she seems to hear something different.

It'd help clear up many misunderstandings.

Jokes aside, men misunderstand the question. Men hear "Question! Please respond to my question!" when in fact, the words the woman spoke are not a question at all. These words are an invitation to a conversation about style and fashion. The woman is angry that the man dismissed her invitation to have a discussion. The question is irrelevant.

yrs ago we had a crew replacing siding on our house that stopped & refused to go back to work b/c they saw a snake. I was able to use google translate w/my laptop to show them there's only a few venomous species in georgia & this wasn't one of them (was actually able to identify it - their descriptions led to finding a picture & a bunch of: "oh, si! no est problema! gracias!"

"A certain woman who had taken the vow of chastity fell, through youthful desire of pleasure and her womb swelled with child. Brigid, exercising the most potent strength of her ineffable faith, blessed her, causing the child to disappear, without coming to birth, and without pain. She faithfully returned the woman to health and to penance."

"A certain woman who had taken the vow of chastity fell, through youthful desire of pleasure and her womb swelled with child. Brigid, exercising the most potent strength of her ineffable faith, blessed her, causing the child to disappear, without coming to birth, and without pain. She faithfully returned the woman to health and to penance."

it is not me hiding behing AC. About "historical" a big meh. Almost every name as a pagan/"saint" related to. It is just the stupidity of translating hey great, given a saint/Christian name instead of an African one. Do you want me to elaborate more on that?

Shouldn't the title say "Veterinarians Use Google Translate While Delivering Baby"?

This is stupid for at least two reasons. The first reason you know well, and this is why you hide behind an AC. The second reason is because Google Translate only translates to human languages and even though, in a different story, the subject would be an animal, instead of a Woman as it is in TFS/TFA, G.T. would be of no use.